Ministry of Education
Union HRD Minister chairs the 53rdMeeting of the Council of IITs
Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' chaired the 53rdMeeting of the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology  at IIT Delhitoday. Minister of State for HRD Shri Sanjay ShamraoDhotre was also present on the occasion.
The following major decisions have been taken: -
- Every IIT will work on improving their research excellence and through that their national and international rankings. For this, each IIT will come up with their action plan.
- For promoting IITs as global education destinations, foreign students - including the OCI card holders with foreign passport & have studied abroad - would be provided direct entry to appear in the JEE Advanced examinations. Further, IITs would prepare a scheme for providing scholarships for the bright foreign students to study in IITs. They would also explore the possibility of offering online programmes to students both in India and abroad. The process of recruiting foreign faculty would be continued by liberalising the current regulatory processes.
- A major drive will be launched for improving the hostel facilities and rebuilding the dilapidated hostels. Separate funding for this would be earmarked under HEFA. Further, where possible, the PPP model would be implemented which would be started by IIT Delhi.
- In order to promote excellence in the IITs, all new appointments would be through tenure tracksystem, under which IITs will have more flexibility in recruitment without insisting for necessary three years post-PhD experience. The performance of such faculty members will be reviewed by an Internal Review Committee after three years,and by an External Review Committee after fifth year based on which the decision for their retention or promotion to the next higher grade will be decided. It was also decided that the first and second generation IITs will not engage faculty membersfrom third generation IITs before they complete a minimum of two years.
- The Council approved, in principle, recommendations of the three Member Committeeconstituted for suggesting reforms in M.Tech system. The Committee has, inter-alia, recommended uniform fee structure for M.Techprogramme in all IITs, and for charging the same fee for M Tech as in B Tech programmes. Institutions are encouraged to move towards sponsored students or even sponsored programmes as per requirement of industry.
- Academically weak students, who are not able to secure the required credits for promotion to the next semester may be allowed an exit optionwith a degree programmeafter second semester,rather than being forced out of the programme. Individual IITswill decide modalities for this.
- In order to ensure that students passing out from IITs do not face any difficulty in foreign countries with regard to their degrees not being accredited by the designated authority, the Council decided that external peer review of IITs will be done by an External Review Committee in the format prescribed by the NBA and based on the review by the Committee, accreditation will be given by NBA.
- Continuation of the weaker section scholarships for slow paced students for one additional year beyond the regular term of four years.
- Each IIT will identify their thrust areas for specialization and communicate the same to MHRD within a month.In these areas, they have to set up nation-best research facilities.
- The HRD Minister launched a common IIT/IISc admission portal developed by IIT Bombay for international applicants interested in pursuing postgraduate studies.